These days, the market for PC gaming handhelds is crowded, but Acer is aiming to differentiate itself with the introduction of its Nitro Blaze lineup. The Nitro Blaze 8 features an 8.8-inch screen while the Nitro Blaze 11 boasts an impressive 10.95-inch display, making them among the largest of their kind currently available. Both devices present a sharp resolution of 2560 x 1600 and offer refresh rates of 144 Hz for the Blaze 8 and 120 Hz for the Blaze 11, resulting in a visual feast with plenty of pixels.
Equipped with high-res, high-refresh IPS displays, these devices are bound to test the capabilities of current technology, especially with more demanding AAA games. Acer has chosen to power these handhelds with AMD’s Ryzen 7 8840HS CPU, the same chip as found in Asus’ ROG Ally’s Z1 Extreme, indicating similar performance expectations. Gamers will need to frequently employ AMD’s upscaling technology to maximize performance.
According to Acer’s specs, both the Nitro Blaze 8 and 11 are outfitted with a 55 Whr battery. This capacity surpasses that of the original Ally’s 40 Whr and the Steam Deck OLED’s 50 Whr but falls short of the Ally X’s 80 Whr. Each device comes with 16GB of RAM and offers up to 2TB of storage. Both models’ touchscreens can reach 500 nits of brightness. Interestingly, Acer highlights the CPUs’ AI capabilities, boasting 39 TOPS, though it’s unclear what this adds to the gaming experience. In terms of performance and battery life, don’t expect these devices to lead the pack, but they do stand out with their substantial size compared to most competitors.
What sets the Blaze 11 apart further is its removable controllers, bringing it closer to Lenovo’s Legion Go’s design, albeit likely without an integrated mouse sensor. However, these controllers seem to lack dedicated cursor control. This means users will be doing quite a bit of tapping and swiping to navigate through Windows 11 Home OS when not within Acer’s Game Space.
Naturally, with bigger displays comes more weight. The Nitro Blaze 8 is fairly lightweight at 1.59 pounds, whereas the Nitro 11 is heftier at 2.31 pounds. From a quick hands-on experience with the new models, the Blaze 11 seemed less cumbersome in reality than it appeared in promotional materials. However, it’s not something you’d want to carry around casually just like larger gaming laptops, it’s more suited to home use. My main concern is battery longevity; the large, high-resolution screen is undoubtedly a power-hungry feature. Given its primary usage scenario at home, though, being near a USB-C charger should ease this concern.
Acer is planning to release the Nitro Blaze 8 and 11 in the second quarter, with pricing that reflects their size: the 8-inch model starts at $899, and the 11-inch variant begins at $1,099.
